The White House measure appears designed to entice moderate Democrats and perhaps even Republicans into supporting a health care overhaul if legislative efforts in Congress fail or if they move too far to the left.

Obama Readies a Fallback Health-Care Proposal

According to WSJ

would provide health insurance to perhaps 15 million Americans, about half what the comprehensive bill would cover, according to two people familiar with the planning.

t would do that by requiring insurance companies to allow people up to 26 years old to stay on their parents’ health plans, and by modestly expanding two federal-state health programs, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, one person said. The cost to the federal government would be about one-fourth the price tag for the broader effort, which the White House has said would cost about $950 billion over 10 years.

The article doesn’t mention the mandates, so I will assume they are still in (or else, I would be happy with this fallback)

Administration officials with knowledge of current health care negotiations pushed back Wednesday evening against a report that the White House is readying a paired-down (sic) version of reform should the current proposal fail to win sufficient congressional support

Of course, they can’t say WSJ made up the story, so they contradict themselves by admitting

“This proposal was developed because the president wanted to know what the impact would be if he had to go small post-Massachusetts [Senate race]. It’s not where we are,” the official said.

“As you can tell from covering the news this week,” the official added, “this is not the proposal we’re pursuing.”

In other words: “As you can tell from our propaganda news we are putting plan “A” publicly, so stop saying that.

Even B0bots smell the BS on that one

I call bullshit on the article..who besides freepers

spell “pared down” as “paired down”???
I smell a rat.

and

8. Unfortunately, this Huff Post article makes no sense.

First, they “pushed back Wednesday evening against a report that the White House is readying a paired-down version of reform”, but then two paragraphs down they admit that “a fallback option had been developed”??

As numerous people have already posted, if you’ve developed a worst-case scenario fall back option, you have no choice but to keep it secret. Now the whole country knows that Obama has a plan-B, even if he’s supposedly still pushing for the original proposal.

I like Obama, but he’s repeatedly shown that he’s too naive and weak-willed to be a good president. I’m hoping he’ll eventually wise up and grow a spine.

Obama’s greatest mistake was failing to listen to Emanuel on health care. Early on, Emanuel argued for a smaller bill with popular items, such as expanding health coverage for children and young adults, that could win some Republican support. He opposed the public option as a needless distraction.

Although the physicians’ group requested an invitation to Thursday’s summit at Blair House, no reply from the White House has been forthcoming, Young said. The group also noted: “Similarly, requests from Reps. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, Anthony Weiner of New York and Peter Welch of Vermont that single-payer advocates be included in the meeting have apparently gone unanswered.”

Several hospital lobbyists involved in the White House deals said it was understood as a condition of their support that the final legislation would not include a government-run health plan paying Medicare rates — generally 80 percent of private sector rates — or controlled by the secretary of health and human services.

“We have an agreement with the White House that I’m very confident will be seen all the way through conference,”

6 comments

We are either witnessing the most fumbling, bumbling, incompetent Democratic Presidency in recent history, or a Trojan Horse who works for the dark side. We can only hope that someone like Alan Grayson takes him on in 2012, and that he keeps his hands off the most important domestic issues for the three long years remaining in his term. God forbid that he tries to negotiate a “fix” for Social Security. Hell, I wouldn’t trust this guy to negotiate the purchase of a used car.

What’s also priceless is that the original (unphotoshopped, lol) pre-president seal was hung “crooked” (by the otherwise over-controlling staff) that one time it was used – before being literally laughed off stage!

On a more serious note: Boehner asked for Stupak to be invited to the hearing, as his proposal of banning federal funding for abortions is not included in Obama’s proposal, despite (in Boehner’s words) reflecting

“… the will of the American people. Inviting Stupak would “… send a signal that the White House respects the views of a majority of Americans … on the critical issue of life.” !